National Telecom Policy: Lip service again

Honestly, I had no intention of writing two back-to-back posts on the issue of telecom, that too the emphasis, or the lack of it, on indigenous technologies. Only last week I had done one - Don’t cry when China succeeds. They act, we don’t even talk. But then, the voluble minister for communications, Kapil Sibal, unleashed the new National Telecom Policy, 2011, on us yesterday and left me with no option, really.

The policy document, once again a list of pious platitudes, how great we are or should be and how we will strive to earn our rightful place and so on. There is very little by way of when and how. A closer look reveals that a lot of it is nothing but what we have been hearing for at least a decade. Since I am focusing on indigenous telecom technology, let me draw your attention to the mission statements.

There are 5 ‘mission statements’ in the new policy, and the one at No. 3 wants to “Make India a hub of telecom equipment manufacturing and provisioning of converged communication services.” Noble mission indeed, but wait.

Now please rewind and look at the ‘vision statement’ from the national Telecom policy 1999, that is, a good 12 (TWELVE) years ago. The vision statement then said that we needed to “strengthen research and development efforts in the country and provide an impetus to build world-class manufacturing capabilities” and “with a view to promoting indigenous telecom equipment manufacture for both domestic use and export, the government would provide the necessary support and encouragement to the sector, including suitable incentives to the service providers utilizing indigenous equipment.” See what I mean?

For all you know, the person drafting the latest policy may have simply cut and pasted from the policy of 1999 and changed the language. Job done, boss happy, the gullible satisfied. Little wonder, the contribution of Indian-made telecom equipment in the total consumed in the country is a piffling 2-3 per cent. In 2007-08, the total equipment demand was for Rs 58781 crore. The indigenous contribution to that was Rs 1000 crore. In 2008-09, the figure was Rs 60,294 crore and Rs 1200 crore and in 2009-10, it was Rs 54765 crore and Rs 1400 crore. For the nation with the highest telecom growth in the world, it is a matter of shame.

It is not that the government is not aware of this. During two successive India Telecom addresses, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has raised this issue. In 2008, he had said “I assure you that the Government will develop a forward-looking policy regime that will encourage investment in manufacturing in telecom sector. While we can be satisfied with the growth in tele-density, I am concerned about our capabilities in telecom R&D & manufacturing. Can we have a sector where we are world class in telecom network but do not have an adequate manufacturing presence?” Again a very noble thought.

Surprise, surprise. He seemed to realise the next year (2009) that not much had happened after his statement the year before and he said that “Slow growth in the telecom manufacturing sector in India is an area of some concern for us.” But lip service has no sanctity, and so is the case with the PM’s statements. So we languish. In fact, even the telecom watchdog realizes it and said as recently as April this year in its recommendations on encouraging equipment manufacturing in India that “Although the New Telecom Policy of 1999 (NTP ’99) contained stipulations regarding promotion of domestic products, promotion of exports and utilization of indigenous equipment, no plans or schemes for implementation of these aspects of the policy have come to light.”

In fact, this culture of lip service and taking the gullible citizens for a ride continues unabated and has got worse. Remember how we are told that some of the biggies in the world of handset manufacturing are now making some top-end phones in India? If it makes you feel good, do look at the ‘made in India’ product carefully. Please find below two pictures of Motorola’s popular smartphone “Defy”.

The first picture is of the box, where it clearly says “Manufactured by M/s Motorola Mobility Chennai Pvt Ltd. etc.

Now take the phone out of the box, open the back cover and pull out the battery, and see what it says.

Author

Rajesh Kalra is the Chief Editor of Times Internet and business head for the non-English languages properties. A journalist for two decades, he also tried his hands at entrepreneurship in between. Although he has written on several subjects, he has a weakness for IT and telecommunications. He is an avid sportsman, a trained high-altitude mountaineer, a passionate mountain biker and a marathoner. His blog, Random Access, will cover issues that take into account these varied interests.
Follow @rajeshkalra on Twitter

Rajesh Kalra is the Chief Editor of Times Internet and business head for the non-English languages properties. A journalist for two decades, he also tried h. . .